Kakuji Kakuta

Kakuji Kakuta (23 September 1890-2 August 1944) was a Vice-Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Biography
Kakuji Kakuta was born on 23 September 1890 in Minamikanbara, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, and he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1911. At the start of World War II, he was a Rear Admiral in command of Carrier Division 4, which took part in the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. In early 1942, he led naval aviation raids on the United Kingdom's bases in India and on Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and he also led raids on Dutch Harbor during the Aleutian Islands campaign. On 1 November 1942, he was promoted to Vice-Admiral after taking part in the Solomon Islands campaign, and he took command of the First Air Fleet in the Philippines. His planes suffered heavy losses in the February 1944 American carrier raids, and they were mauled in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Kakuta returned to the island of Tinian with his remaining forces and assumed command of the garrison there, and he committed seppuku in a cave after repeatedly failing to escape the island.